Two weeks ago, I decided to put up the Christmas lights before Vero got home (read: she told me she would love to see the lights up before she got home) but when I went out to the garage I heard an awful racket coming from the hot tub.
Note: the things I will talk about in this post will mostly make me sound like I know what the heck a hot tub does, but let it be known that I had little understanding until AFTER two weeks of research along with my co-researcher…Dad. Also, this is mainly for historical purposes so it may not be the most entertaining thing to read.
When I opened up the cover to the hot tub, I found the circulating pump (Circ-Master by Aquaflo) was the source of the racket. I also noticed it leaking which explains why the water level would go down over the weeks. I turned the breaker off, engaged the cut-off valves to the pump, unscrewed the unions, took the ground wire off, unplugged the guy, and Bob’s your uncle.
Luckily for me, there was a sticker on it indicating that I should bring it to a store on Cyrville Road. Perfect! I gave them a call and they said to bring it on it.
As soon as I walked in there, I knew I was amongst experts. The guy at the counter took one look at it and said “Ah. You must have a leaky seal.” He explained that once the seal goes (every 3-5 years), the chlorinated water starts leaking over the pump. Turns out that it started to deteriorate the impeller blade on the pump as well. I left it in their good hands and returned on Wednesday to pick it up. $188 later, I’m walking out with a working pump.
Or so I thought. Plugged the pumped back in, attached the unions, flipped the breaker…nothing. Hmm…after some research I realized I never bled the line of the air pocket. Loosened a union, heard the air escape…still nothing. Hmm…
I called back and they said they test all pumps going out so it should be working. Next up is checking out my spa pack! The spa pack is the circuit board that runs the hot tub.
Everything checked out there. I ended up phoning Chinook Hot Tubs who were a great help in trying to debug the problem. They are always super helpful and I recommend them to anyone. Even though they thought it was the pump, they ended up finally suggesting maybe it’s a fuse that has gone in the spa pack. I changed the fuse but no dice. I even got Mike’s help in measuring the amount of voltage from the plug and it was outputting a solid 248V. So we knew the pump was getting power.
I have to say at this point, it was a frustrating experience. I spent a few hours in the cold on Wednesday and woke up early Saturday morning to sit in the cold winter chill (the wind was quite nasty that day!) to not have a damn thing work for me. I was fighting against time and the weather at this point…winter was coming and I needed to figure this out.
I ended up bringing the pump back in to get checked out. I figured that if it wasn’t the pump, it has to be the circuit board. Dad thought that maybe there is power going to the pump but a signal has to be sent to trigger it on. At this point, it could be anything but sometimes it’s the simplest things and I knew I had to go back to square one. Verify if the pump was working.
I chatted with the guy at the counter for a bit while the pump was being tested. The young guy brings the pump out of the back and says “Well, it works.” There went all the hope in the world. But then he explained…”Well, it works now. There was a loose wire in there.”
Hallelujah! I was so ecstatic. I don’t think they’ve had a reaction like that from a pump that works! I was dancing on the countertops, fireworks went off and cheerleaders threw confetti on them. At least that’s how I remember the moment.
I brought the pump back home, cleared out the snow around the hot tub that had fallen the night before and lo and behold, the pump worked on the first shot! Bingo bango, it works!
After speaking to Dad, I realized that while it was a pain in my ass, I learned a lot from this experience. It’s good to understand how things work (like your hot tub) and no one bothers to understand a device until it breaks. That’s just how the world works. At least in my world that is. I’m confident in debugging hot tub issues at this point, but I’m no expert. But at least I figured out a few things along the way.